The document discusses strategies for connecting with millennial alumni through social media and increasing their engagement with the 4-H program. It outlines the current state of 4-H alumni programs, steps taken to recognize and personalize the alumni experience, and insights from focus groups with millennial alumni. These focus groups revealed that alumni want local involvement opportunities and micro-giving options. The document also describes email and social media campaigns piloted with alumni including a welcome series, fundraising appeals, and a Facebook page. It concludes with lessons learned and opportunities to further engage alumni through scalable digital programs.

1. Connecting with Millennials
through Social Media

2. National 4-H Council
• Ashley Lusk, Manager of Marketing and
Communication
• Donna Arriaga, Manager of Online and
Mobile Fundraising
Got Q&A?
Tweet us using the hashtag #4HMCON

3. Where are 4-H alumni?

4. Imagine what we can
do if we connect 60
million 4-H alumni to
our movement?

5. Alumni State of Affairs
National
• No national program
• Opt-in for quarterly newsletter
• Receive 2-3 donation appeals annually
State/County
• Various programs and incentives by state
• Appeals often focus on estate planning

6. Step 1: Recognize
• We began our first directed approach to
engage alumni: 4-H Alumni Month
• Honored successful alumni as part of our
annual Legacy Awards Gala
• Corporate Volunteer Opportunities

7. Clovers & Company with Jennifer Nettles

8. Step 1: Recognize
• We began our first directed approach to
engage alumni: 4-H Alumni Month
• Honored successful alumni as part of our
annual Legacy Awards Gala
• Corporate Volunteer Opportunities

9. Step 2: Personalize
• We added a self-
selecting option to allow
users to designate
themselves as alumni
when signing up for more
information.
• Placed emphasis on
segmenting audience
and creating national
registry of alumni

10. Step 3: Perspective
Partnership with Achieve
• Focus groups of young
alumni
• Testing new donation
appeals
• Grow email house file
through targeted
campaign

11. Millennial Alumni Focus Groups
Met with three focus groups:
Young adults aged 18-35
Group size: 5-25
Past participant in the 4-H program
Met at State or County Fairs and at
4-H State Congress

12. Donation
• They don’t have expendable cash
• They want micro-giving opportunities—the ability to
give in small denominations
• They are looking to give to specific, tangible causes

13. Communication
&
Community
• They are interested in
• Facebook and Twitter
ways to stay local
and email are preferred
to direct mail • Want to serve as
ambassadors for the
• They want visually
mission
stimulating content that
is both personalized and • Want to meet and
geographically specific network with other young
alumni

14. 4-H Focus Groups
4-H alumni have a strong loyalty
to our brand.
However, they don't understand
what it means to be a 4-H alum.
They want to know the benefits
and opportunities of participating.

15. Engagement: Welcome Series
Three-Part Welcome Series
1. Thanks for Joining the Community!
• Content: Intro and welcome into the alumni community.
• Call to Action (cta): Soft cta with Twitter and Facebook icons/links in
email body.
2. iPad Winner Announcements
• Content: iPad winners, alumni spotlight, poll.
• Call to Action: Active cta with a poll asking alum how they would
like to get involved.
3. Step Up & Share Your Talents
• Intertwined Content & Call to Action: All content focused on driving
the cta. Strong cta asking alumni to respond to the following
question: ―What talent or skill would you share with the 4-H
Community?‖

16. Engagement: Fundraising Appeals
Fundraising Appeal
• Overview
– The alumni welcome series wrapped up just as the end of year (EOY)
fundraising campaign was about to kick off.
– Council’s 2011 EOY email campaign consisted of 3 appeal messages:
2 leading hard asks and a closing ask with end of year urgency.
• New Alumni + EOY Fundraising
New alumni were…
– Suppressed from the first appeal message.
– Included in EOY appeals 2 & 3
Appeals contained…
– Alumni-targeted messaging
– A/B subject line testing to explore message efficacy

17. Engagement: Fundraising Appeals
ALUMNI RESULTS GENERAL AUDIENCE
• EOY Message 2 • EOY Message 1
– Open Rate: 21.02% – Open Rate: 12.57%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.33% – Clickthrough Rate: 0.54%
• EOY Message 3 • EOY Message 2
– Open Rate: 18.31% – Open Rate: 10.45%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.41% – Clickthrough Rate: 0.29%
• EOY Message 3
– Open Rate: 13.16%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.4%
NPO Benchmark Averages for Fundraising Messages
Open rate: 12%
Clickthrough rate: 0.5%
Source: NTEN and M+R, 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

18. 4-H Alumni Community
• Two channels:
– Facebook
– Postcard
• 4-H Alumni Month
• iPad incentive
• Total Alumni
Acquisitions: 2,592

19. The landscape is shifting…
19 9/10/2012

20. Engagement Strategy
Participation
Advocacy
Donation
Engagement

21. 4-H Facebook

22. Onboarding
• Purpose
– Communicate with and cultivate newly opted-in alumni through frequent,
targeted, interactive communications designed to usher them up an
engagement ladder.
• Approach
– Re-setting communication channels with an onboarding/re-entry email
series, targeting alumni.
– Aligning social media and email editorial calendars.
– Leveraging email as a starting point for conversations as well as an
aggregator for the latest news across 4-H online channels.
• Each message contains…
– One core message.
– One strong call to action aimed at driving continued engagement on
social media channels.

23. Lessons
Challenges Opportunities
• States often don't have • National alumni database
resources to create a • Content pulled from local
sustainable alumni programs
program • Giving opportunities at
• However, alumni are the local level
most interested in local
participation

24. 4-H 2.0
• Testing other
scalable
engagement
opportunities—
tweet chats, live
streaming, guest
blogging,
collegiate
engagement

25. Q&A
Share your thoughts using the hashtag #4HMCON
25 9/10/2012

26. 4-H is the youth development program of our
nation's Cooperative Extension System.
26